No more snow days: School district replaces wintry days off with online classes

ANDERSON, S.C. — A school district in South Carolina is doing away with snow days and replacing them with online classes.

Anderson School District 5 is set to become the first school district in the state to do so.

The district was selected as part of an eLearning pilot program, it said in a Facebook post on July 25. The program lets students access assignments at home via Google Classroom with Chromebook devices. Students in grades 3 through 12 will be required to take their Chromebooks home to access the assignments.

Internet connectivity is not required for these assignments, according to the school district. The assignments can be downloaded ahead of time so students can have access to their assignments without WiFi.

The technology will be implemented for the 2018-19 school year, according to the school district. A firm calendar has been created with no inclement weather makeup days included.

“At the end of the day, it makes common sense and financial sense to implement this program,” Superintendent Tom Wilson said in a news release. “No longer will we need to run buses mid-June for a makeup day that only a quarter of our students attend.”

Before the first day of school on Aug. 20, students in kindergarten through 12th grade must begin a registration process for an online portal.